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9/2/08
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12 comments
Unions: Mill deal pending
Millinocket facility open until next week
MILLINOCKET, Maine — The Katahdin Avenue paper mill, which was due to cease production today, will stay open until at least the middle of next week and could return to a biomass-fueled plant as early as April 2009, union officials said Monday. Katahdin Paper Co. LLC officials announced Aug. 26 that the mill would close on or about Sept. 2 because of a lack of work orders — a point workers dispute — and the burgeoning cost of heating oil, the mill’s sole source of heat. The last orders will be finished this week. “They are working everybody this week and we have a series of meetings next week where we will see how the shutdown process and layoffs will proceed,” United Steelworkers Local 152 President Louis Ouellette said. “Beyond next week, I don’t know.” The union-management meetings will determine how many layoffs occur at Katahdin Paper’s East Millinocket and Millinocket mills. Earlier notices said 208 jobs would go. As many as 100 East Millinocket workers will be “bumped” by Millinocket workers with more seniority, Ouellette said. Workers are preparing the mill to survive months of inactivity, Ouellette said. “It will leave the mill in a state where it can be started up quickly,” said Duane Lugdon, a representative for three United Steelworkers International unions at the paper mills of East Millinocket and Millinocket. “The maintenance effort will continue here for at least two or three weeks.” Their Labor Day predictions are based on conversations with Katahdin Paper management over the last several days, Ouellette and Lugdon said. That could not be confirmed with mill manager Serge Sorokin and spokesman Glenn Saucier on Monday. But based on their access, Ouellette and Lugdon said they believe an agreement to power the mill with a biomass boiler will be signed within a month. Six to eight workers will stay on-site to maintain the mill until restart. “I guess I would term the inking [of the deal] as imminent,” Lugdon said. “I am told on good authority that if we can get it inked, quickly, the total build time here [for the boiler] is six to nine months.” At least some union workers will help build it. “Our interest is in seeing this built over the winter when the cost of burning oil is highest, using as many of our people as can be used,” Lugdon said. Katahdin’s parent company, Toronto-based conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management, announced May 29 that the mill’s prodigious oil use would in 60 days force an indefinite shutdown and layoff of 208 workers if an alternative energy source weren’t found. Gov. John Baldacci intervened, the mill found energy savings and supportive customers, and the deadline was extended repeatedly. Brookfield was in talks with alternative energy providers on Aug. 26 when its officials ordered the Sept. 2 shutdown in a manner that Baldacci and the unions said was abrupt. Since then Brookfield has stated only that it remains in talks and that its commitment to the mill depends on successful biomass negotiations. Baldacci, whose staff is assisting the talks, and Town Manager Eugene Conlogue, who met with Sorokin and Saucier on Aug. 26, are the only officials who have spoken publicly of tentative mill plans based on direct access to top-level company officials. Baldacci said Saturday he plans to hold Brookfield to its commitment to reopen the mill before considering other options. The company has $95 billion in assets.
Comments
In the event the mill does not reopen after it shuts down (or even in the interim of restarting many months from now), I hope that Gov. Baldacci realizes that if over 200 people go out of work in the Millinocket/East Millinocket area that the Department of Labor needs to bend the unemployment rules a bit when it comes to looking for work in the Katahdin area...there are not enough jobs or places to apply to, to satisfy the "apply to 3 places" rule and expect to actually get a job. Often people apply to the same places week after week because there is no place else to apply to. It would be a shame to penalize people and deny benefits because the criteria are not "sufficiently satisfied". Wake up to the fact that there is a fundamental problem in the Katahdin Region with the ability to apply for jobs - there's nowhere to go. How much did the taxpayer have to pay for this latest development? Katahdin, why should people just not look for work outside of the Katahdin area? What do the people think is going to happen if the actually don't reopen the mills, what stay on unemployment for ever. maybe people will have to sell thier houses and move to the bigger cities and get a job there. Deal pending, Checks in the Mail, No really I’ll call you next week…. Now what Nick; is this an exercise in political patty-cake or have you become a complete company man? Its not going to reopen, and even if it does, the town is still going take the dam, force Brookfield to clean up its toxic love cannel and quite possibly litigation for the cancer clusters surrounding the Mill. Yup, The Canadian based Brookfield Power and Brookfield Asset Management will be paying for this mess for a long time. I wouldn’t want to own stock in this sinking ship!
The men in the mills are a needed asset and talk is that many are considering moving on after many years of uncertain futures. Papermakers have taken cuts in wages and now make less then they made in 1995. Many do not know the times men did 2 jobs to keep running because they put faith in top management to make good decisions and believed Katahdin Paper would return to the quality supplier that was known all over the world. I still put faith in my fellow work mates but with the present management I don't believe good choices will be made since communication is low as to keeping unions in the loop. Great Northern was here before this group came in to the area and we worked together when problems came up. Unions worked with company by telling the truth and brain storming together. We have homes to heat and families to feed and we understand oil prices but Katahdin paper had almost 5 years to look at the whole picture. Just a line I heard in the mill says it all ................2 little monkeys running the show Serge and Glenn it might be time to go! Who can afford to travel to Bangor to get a job paying $10/hr with the price of gas being what it is? I know a lot of people who used to travel to work and now they rent a place during the week while their families stay here because it is cheaper. Good Luck trying to sell a home up here!!! WHY would anyone move here? The only people buying are out of staters because property is so cheap where else in the world can people on welfare afford to own their own homes?? I want to let everyone know about the dedicated workforce Brookfield is about to throw under the bus. These hard working men and women are in Katahadin mill as I write shutting down their livelihood. They went back to this mill for far less money then they were making before the bankruptcy, they were willing to make this concession because they believed in this company, look where that got them, nowhere. They were set up to fail, no matter what they did to cut costs , no matter how hard they have worked it was never enough! They have proved time and again that this mill CAN make money. Lack of orders that's a joke, there were orders aplenty before the shutdown announcement. Yes the cost of oil has skyrocketed,but why five years ago did Brookfield not look more closely into the biomass? Because they never had any intention of letting this mill run they just want the hydro plant and to h--l with the work force and the town of Millinocket. I will close by again saying that I commend the mill workers, I don't know if many could be as professional as you all have been. I don't think Brookfield has a clue or even cares but your fellow workers families and friends know what each and every one of you has done to keep this mill from closing. Thank you Sounds like a good plan. I say that we leave the business owners to do what THEY feel that THEY need to do to make THEIR company profitable for THEIR shareholders and THEMSELVES. Good ol CAPITALISM at it's finest!! Hopefully the Millinocket Chapter of the Junior Communist League will see it that way and NOT feel the need to interject themselves into what is a PRIVATE company matter. Plenty of people in the USA drive at least an hour each way to work. There might be jobs within an hour's drive...if you look for them. pcme2000 - your plan on how to handle being laid off sounds good and practical on the surface. Many people of the Katahdin Region live here because they love it here - but besides all that - the local economy being what it is...there is nobody to sell your house to, unless you want to 'give it away'. Drive up and down any street and take your pick, there are so many 'for sale' signs out. People want to leave, but for practical reasons they cannot, unless they are willing to just walk away from a home they have nurtured for many years while they worked in the mill. There are many commuting to Lincoln and Bangor while taking $100 off the top of what they make for the cost of the commute. There are no simple anwers. Re: traveling to Bangor for a new job....If the millworkers are such a well trained workforce, they should have no problem listing their accomplishments and training on a resume and then getting a well paying job at a place other than GNP. Don't whine about $10/hour jobs....that's what McDonald's is paying in Bangor. GNP workers must be more than that. Carpool, get rid of your big trucks that sit idle all day long in the mill parking lots. Re: selling your home. .....I saw two houses in Milllinocket with sold signs on them this week. I also know of two houses in Medway that have sold this summer. Have hope! Quick question....how the heck can Millinocket afford eminent domain in this case? The company will sue, the lawsuit will cost millions! Millinocket will end up bankrupt! The taxpayers of Millinocket can NOT afford to take the mill!
Some people in Millinocket seem to have this idea that they will 'take' the mill and pay nothing for it! |
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